While broccoli may not be a favorite with those who would prefer French fries, its popularity is solid, what with its touted health benefits as a cancer-fighting food full of vitamins and fiber. Combine that with the growing trend toward buying locally grown, fresh produce and you have the perfect formula for finding brocc...

Depending on your viewpoint, broccoli could be considered a relative newcomer to the United States, having been brought here by Italian immigrants, brothers Stephano and Andrea D’Arrigo, in 1922.

Beginning the same year Walt Disney incorporated his first film company and the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington, the brothers began trial plantings in California, shipping a few crates to Boston, where they were well received. With some smart marketing on the newly invented radio, the brothers’ enterprise bloomed.

“By the 1930s, broccoli was an established favorite in the land,” according to veggie-friendly website growingtaste.com.

While broccoli may not be a favorite with those who would prefer French fries, its popularity is solid, what with its touted health benefits as a cancer-fighting food full of vitamins and fiber. Combine that with the growing trend toward buying locally grown, fresh produce and you have the perfect formula for finding broccoli from your neighborhood farms at every roadside stand and farm market, right?

Wrong.

Weather in the Finger Lakes region is not conducive to growing the vegetable because the summers can be too hot. Broccoli thrives in cooler weather.

“Right now, to harvest broccoli on a large scale in July in New York is virtually impossible,” said Christy Hoepting, vegetable specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ontario County.

Combine that with a lack of a coordinated system for growing, shipping and marketing locally grown broccoli and it’s a wonder any of it comes from other than a few home gardens in the state.

Actually, that goes for the entire East Coast, as 90 percent of broccoli sold is shipped in from California and Mexico.

But that’s about to change, if a team of Cornell University-led experts has anything to do with it. The group is working on a plan to create a $100 million broccoli industry in the East within the next 10 years.

A broccoli ‘dream team’?

Producing broccoli varieties that thrive in the East is a tall order. But those working on the project say it can be done.

“It’s good old-fashioned plant breeding, difficult but well done,” said Thomas Björkman, associate professor of horticulture with Cornell University’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva. He heads up what some have dubbed the “Broccoli Dream Team,” which includes vegetable breeders, seed companies, farmers, marketing professionals, economists and Cooperative Extension educators.

“We eat more and more broccoli on the East Coast,” said Björkman. “The demand is there.”

Growing broccoli is similar to growing cabbage, which thrives in the East, including in the Finger Lakes region. That leaves the main limiting factor, he said: Genetics.

Last week, Cornell announced funding for the project. It consists of a $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In addition, $1.7 million in matching contributions will come from participating companies that will help develop broccoli varieties to suit conditions in the eastern U.S., recruit farmers and organize networks for growers and distributors.

Page 2 of 2 -
Creating a multi-million-dollar broccoli industry on the East Coast “could reduce fuel costs, cut carbon dioxide emissions from cross-country trucks and save water in the western United States,” the announcement read.

Icy obstacle

The broccoli project has grabbed the attention of farmers, some of whom signed on to doing test crops this past season. The broccoli they grew wasn’t any special variety, as breeding those East Coast-friendly varieties is a work in progress. What they found was interesting, however: Those at an Ontario County farm doing the trial reported a good, hearty crop. At Hansen Farms LLC, a vegetable and crop farm that produces some 600 acres of cabbage, they grew five acres of broccoli.

“It did really well. It was nice and sweet,” said Eric Hansen.

As with much of their cabbage, which is sold for fresh market, it went to consumers across the state.

Hansen did some number-crunching, though, and questions whether he’d get into the broccoli business long term. The main drawback: Ice. Unlike cabbage, broccoli has to be kept on ice after it’s harvested, to prevent it from drying out, he said. While he is set up for keeping cabbage cool, he’d have to make a substantial investment to make ice and properly store broccoli, he said.

Björkman said the team has experts in food safety and economics who are exploring ways to eliminate the problem.

“Cooling is definitely a big deal,” said Björkman.

In California, there are companies devoted solely to cooling broccoli. While that might not catch on here, he said, other ideas involve helping farmers pool space and resources to store broccoli; and using new technologies for keeping broccoli from drying out.

Hoepting said the project must take into account all aspects of the process. But the recent breakthrough in genetics and success of cabbage in the East bode well for the future of broccoli, she said: “It’s an opportunity we have to look into.”